CRAWFORD COUNTY, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — Police arrested an Arkansas woman who admitted to jamming a wet wipe down her baby’s throat, fatally cutting off the child’s air supply, according to investigators.
Nancy Williams, of Mulberry, faces a charge of first-degree murder after first responders and police found her 2-month-old baby boy unresponsive Thursday.
First responders attempted CPR but found the baby’s airway blocked, according to the arrest affidavit. They were finally able to locate an object deep in the infant’s throat that was barely visible. Emergency personnel managed to remove the object, which was confirmed to be a baby wipe, but were not anble to save the infant’s life.
Williams later told investigators that she tried to give a bottle to her crying baby and forced it in the child’s mouth, cutting his gums and causing him to cry more, the affidavit says. Williams stated she then forced a baby wipe into the infant’s mouth to stop the bleeding and crying.
Police said Williams demonstrated how she put the wipe completely in the infant’s mouth before pushing it hard to make the crying and bleeding stop. She said when she lost sight of the wet wipe in the child’s throat and couldn’t get it out, she panicked and woke her husband telling him the infant stopped breathing, according to the affidavit.
When asked why she did not tell anyone about the baby wipe, she replied that “she had other things on her mind,” the affidavit says.
Williams was arrested Friday and is being held in the Crawford County Detention Center on a $1 million bond.